Laura Jones is the Executive Vice-President and Chief Strategic Officer of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). In this position, Laura is responsible for the Federation’s legislative, marketing and communications, research, and IT functions.

Laura believes good public policy is based on a thorough understanding of how policy affects people. She is passionate about issues that don’t get enough public attention, such as the cost of red tape, the impact of municipal overspending and the critical role that small businesses play in the economy. Her solution-oriented approach has led to government implementation of her policy recommendations in areas as diverse as tax administration, regulation and fisheries management.

Laura is an expert on regulatory reform and has led groundbreaking research on the costs of regulation in Canada and in the U.S. Her work in this area has been published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Laura has served on a number of government committees including the Federal Advisory Committee on Paperwork Burden Reduction, the Federal Red Tape Reduction Commission, the Federal Regulatory Advisory Committee and the British Columbia Expert Panel on Tax Competitiveness. She is currently on the board of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and CFIB.

Since joining CFIB in 2003, Laura has spearheaded a number of high-profile campaigns on behalf of small businesses, including CFIB’s annual Red Tape Awareness WeekTM and the ‘Park the Tax’ campaign that convinced the BC government to get rid of a new property tax on parking in the Lower Mainland.

As a leader, Laura believes in continually challenging herself and others to grow. She is proud of establishing a CFIB/Scotiabank Internship in Public Policy that gets rave reviews from students.

Prior to joining CFIB, Laura worked for the Fraser Institute where she created a Centre for Studies in Risk and Regulation, developed an annual survey of mining companies, authored book on fisheries management and published a number of policy studies on resource use and regulation.
Laura received her B.A. in Economics from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and her M.A. in Economics from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. She has taught economics at Coquitlam College and at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.